Baker County Commissioner Bill Harvey says that the federal government needs to get to work on a plan for salvage logging to quickly cut the timber left standing by area wildfires.

“What they’ve done in the past is they’ve not logged them and they are allowed to fall on the floor of the forest, and then debris grows up through them and it’s thicker and difficult to get in and clean it out later,” he said.

With the fires that have swept through large portions of Baker County, Harvey says county officials are trying to prod the feds into action.

“Our attempt now is to get with the Forest Service and the BLM (Bureau of Land Management) and work with them on our planning as well through the county,” he said. “Remove these logs while there is still value to them so that it helps pay for the restoration.”

More than 150,000 acres have burned in Baker County alone. Harvey hopes the county can create a federal partnership to clear the standing timber in the burned areas. Officials have asked Congress for help in accomplishing the speedy salvage logging.

From My Columbia Basin: https://www.mycolumbiabasin.com/2015/09/08/official-urges-quick-salvage-logging/